Romania's President Traian Basescu and PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu during the Govt's meeting on Thursday (Jan 12, 2006)(Initially published in www.romania-report.ro -- Jan 16 -- 2006)
Bucharest – Last Thursday (Jan 12, 2006), President Traian Basescu attended the Romanian Government weekly meeting. Basescu outlined the urgent need for fine-tuning the country’s institutional efforts in order to meet EU accession requirements. Earlier last week, a French MP’s delegation, led by Herve de Charette, the deputy president of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the French Parliament, said Romania should enter EU by Jan 1, 2007.
On Friday, Traian Basescu welcomed the EIB VP Wolfgang Roth, at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace to discuss the latest infrastructure loans approved by EIB for Romania.
Last week, President Basescu, while attending the Romanian Government weekly meeting, asked the Cabinet members to correlate their efforts in order to boost Romania’s achieve its objectives for the year and solve the pending issues related to Romania' said.
The head of state reiterated that delaying Romania's accession to the EU is unacceptable, stressing that the Romanian authorities have many other issues to solve this year -- issues unrelated to the European body of law of the obligations pledged for accession to the EU.
Romania's President Traian Basescu on Friday welcomed Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Wolfgang Roth, at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace to discuss the latest infrastructure loans approved by EIB for Romania.
Among these loans are a 250-million-euro loan for the Cernavoda-Constanta motorway; a 300-million-euro loan for reconstruction works on the Curtici-Simeria railroad portion as well as a 300-million-euro loan for the reconstruction of flood-stricken infrastructures and the start of a new flood prevention project.
President Basescu mentioned Romania's need for massive funds in 2007-2013 for rapid development of transport infrastructures, rural development and environmental protection. He asked EIB to consider adding 30 billion euros to the financial grants extended by the European Union to Romania.
The President mentioned that Romania can ask for these additional funds because her indebtedness is low, which allows her to request long-term credit, and because she could rapidly develop her own infrastructures and rural areas, provided that besides the 30 billion euros in financial grants from the European Union she might get further funds of 30 billion euros.
EIB Vice-President Roth agreed with the idea of a rapid development programme for Romania, saying EIB might extend to Romania long-term loans of between 20 and 30 years, with a period of grace of 5 to 7 years. He added that Romania should be able to rapidly set in place structures for the absorption of the funds to be granted.
President Basescu assured the EIB official that the Romanian Government will establish such structures.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) expects Romania to enter the European Union on January 1, 2007, EIB's vice-president Wolfgang Roth on Friday said upon the meeting with PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu at Victoria Palace, the Romanian Gov’t HQ.
Romania Report & sources
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